Fisher returns to land the big one
For the Englishman with the Irish management company, it was a home win away from home, and a special one at that.
The Surrey golfer, who places his career in the hands of Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management, memorably saw off a final-round surge from home favourite Pádraig Harrington to win the Irish Open by two shots, shooting a course-record 61 (see panel) at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club’s Killeen Course in the second round and finishing with a tournament record-equalling total score.
Fisher’s 266 aggregate (18 under par) matched the record set nine years previously by Colin Montgomerie at Fota Island and kept up his run of winning a tournament every year since 2007. Even more significantly, it clinched his place on Montgomerie’s European Ryder Cup team for his debut appearance at Celtic Manor two months later.
So, amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding Ireland’s quartet of Major champions, it will be the 30-year-old Fisher who arrives back in Kerry this week as the Irish Open champion.
“I’ve got fond memories of last year so I’m looking forward to getting back,” Fisher said. “It was very satisfying. I got off to a decent start first round, a couple under the first day and then obviously a pretty spectacular Friday and took it from there.”
With five events remaining to earn qualification for the 2010 Ryder Cup team, Fisher had arrived in Killarney outside the automatic qualifying spots in 13th place.
The victory catapulted him to sixth place and he was home and hosed for a winning debut at Celtic Manor.
“Any tournament win gives you a boost and the level of support was fantastic. Obviously the majority of the support was for Pádraig but I felt a lot of support for me and what made it more special and more satisfying for me was that it more or less secured my place in the Ryder Cup qualification. “It gave me a really good chance of making the team for Celtic Manor.”
After an opening round 69, two under par, Fisher was lying mid-division, five shots back of 18-hole leader David Howell, but when Friday came, there was only one man front and centre.
Fisher shot the lowest round of his European Tour career to take a three-shot lead heading into the weekend, a 10-birdie, no-bogey 61 to eclipse the 63 he shot en route to winning The European Open in 2008 at The London GC.
Fisher’s “pretty flawless golf” saw him birdie 10 of the first 14 holes, including six in a row on the front nine and four in succession between holes 11 and 14, putting him on course for The European Tour’s first 59. And though that milestone went begging, with four pars over the last four, the 10-under-par 61 was one of the rounds of the year. For the Englishman, the Killeen had been an instant hit.
“I played the pro-am and felt very comfortable with the course and then played the first round, played pretty good, just didn’t score as well,” Fisher said.
“I knew it was a course I could go low on but on the Friday, to get going with six birdies in a row on the front nine and to make four on the back side, there was talk of a 59.
“I was in a haze. It did make it very special.”
The 61 propelled Fisher to the top of the leaderboard, three shots clear of Italy’s Francesco Molinari, with Harrington in a group tied for third, five shots off the pace. It was followed though, by a 71 in the third round, which left him just a shot ahead of Molinari and fellow Englishman Chris Wood, two in front of Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Costano and three clear of Harrington and Australian Richard Green.
It would prove to be a thrilling final day in Killarney.
“Obviously, going out in the last group and having a lead, it’s always difficult to sleep on a lead,” Fisher admitted. “You just want to get off to a good start and I got off to a reasonable start but I dropped a shot at the third and it was all getting a bit close, others were starting to make birdies.”
Not least Green, who had birdied the first three holes, and Harrington, who had birdied the second and third. It was then that Fisher bounced back, heading to the turn with a spring in his step following an 18-foot eagle putt on the par-five seventh.
“You try to stay positive and then I birdied the fifth and that got me going again, I eagled the seventh and made birdie at nine and 10, had a good turn with some good up and downs on 11 and 12 and I thought that was the key.”
After Fisher sent a superb eight-iron to four feet on 10 to set up that birdie, he was three clear with eight holes to play — but then came the roars from up the course that told him Harrington was on the move. The Dubliner birdied the 15th and eagled the 16th. Game on.
“I birdied the 15th and then, at 16, the par five, I hadn’t birdied it all week but the times I’d played it already I’d put it in the first trap every day and I was surprised I didn’t make it every day.
“I hit a really bad tee shot, missed the fairway but got away with it and pushed it right, hit the green with my second, which allowed me to make a birdie. I think the birdie on 16 was key and to hold that putt on 17 to give me a two-shot lead going to the last was massive.”
With Harrington having also birdied 17 and closed the same way for a 64 at 16 under, the cushion gave Fisher the luxury of taking a four-iron off the tee at 18 to set up the birdie that would secure victory.
“A win is very, very special but to win in the UK or Ireland is more special, with my management company being Irish, the great Irish crowds, and then with Harrington making that charge, to win made it that much more special.
“There was a good atmosphere there. And it was nice to have my mum and dad there, my wife Jo and it was the first tournament our daughter Eve had been at, so it was really special to have her see me win and to have them come onto the final green, very special.”
And so to the title defence. Fisher has been told the rough is up from last year, enhancing the need for accuracy off the tee, while he emphasised the importance that good putting made to his victory last year. “It was pretty generous off the tees so fairways weren’t at a premium because there wasn’t much rough around. It makes it a lot easier to hold the greens but having said that the greens were quite subtle and they were quite undulating so you had to hit to the right part of the green and I think that was one of the keys. I made a lot of putts.
“The reports are that the course is in fantastic shape and it’s going to be another good challenge. We could do with having the rough up and that’s what it sounds like is going to be the case. It puts the fairways at a premium, so it’s good that there’ll be some decent rough this year and it should be another great contest.”
And an enjoyable week for all the players, says Fisher. “I think it’s one of the tournaments the players enjoy coming to.”
